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Introducing: Schuylkill Yards

Well… That certainly came out of nowhere. This is quite exciting, seeing a massive project like this one. For those who don’t know, in the past few years, there’s been a massive area of construction in New York City on the West Side called Hudson Yards. It’s a massive place built over a railyard that contains a variety of buildings, mostly offices and residential units. At its center is 30 Hudson Yards, a pyramidal structure rising nearly 1,300 feet above the ground. While the quality of these buildings is questionable, it definitely is a quintessential example of urban redevelopment. There’s been talk lately of Drexel University building over the railyard on the western bank of the Schuylkill River. This has somewhat become true, as there are indeed renderings of a development project west of 30th Street Station.

The most notable feature of this project is Schuylkill Yards Tower 1, which will rise 70 stories to a height of 1,095 feet! If it is built, it will be the second tallest building in Philadelphia, only behind the Comcast Innovation & Technology Center. The renderings show a sleek glass tower rising drastically higher than its surroundings, as the tallest part of the development. It’s proximity to 30th Street Station makes it good for being close to SEPTA Regional Rail, Amtrak, and the Market Frankford Line. This is good to further advance the demand of University City, which has been the trend recently. However, I do have a couple problems with this. The 1,095-foot tower looks out of place surrounded by those buildings that are far shorter. Second off, those shorter buildings are hideous. That weird, multi-colored window pattern seen next to the Evo never works. Also, if they assured that they would develop over the railyard, why aren’t they doing it? Also, they could use materials other than glass on the new buildings.

Overall, though, this could spell amazing things for Philadelphia, and continue the revitalization that has been going on in U City ever since the Cira Center in 2004.